


Lucky Star

by MostPreciousTreasures



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alfred Hitchcock - Freeform, Angela Carter Books, Bisexual Character, Canon Divergence - Stranger Things, Chinese Food, Christmas Fluff, Crying, Cuddling & Snuggling, Explicit Consent, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Female Friendship, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Gentle Kissing, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, LGBTQ Character, Making Out, Male-Female Friendship, Milkshakes, Muffins, Neck Kissing, Oral Sex, Smut, Theatre, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, horror movies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-23 22:04:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19710352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MostPreciousTreasures/pseuds/MostPreciousTreasures
Summary: “Steve, you’re my best friend.”“You’re my best friend too,” he said immediately. He didn’t even take his eyes off the road to look at her. But she knew it was true because he smiled the rest of the ride and got out of the car to give her a big hug when he dropped her off at her house.That had been years ago, and Robin still thought of it often. She hadn’t really ever had a best friend. Steve told her he hadn’t either - not a real best friend.“Who knew a little torture by evil Russians could bring people together?,” he said.





	1. The Fog

**Author's Note:**

> I loved that Stranger Things subverted the Teen Romance trope with Steve and Robin's relationship. But I was also a little sad that they wouldn't be together romantically as I loved their dynamic. Decided to write an AU where Robin still retains her identity, but also wants to be with Steve.

Steve had become her best friend. It was surprising how natural it felt. Robin distinctly remembered the moment they had declared it to each other. They were on their way home from Family Video, Steve was driving, and it was a cool, clear summer night. They had all the windows down, the radio on, singing at the top of their lungs to Madonna’s “Lucky Star”. Robin had treated them to milkshakes from Scoops Ahoy for a laugh. Steve had picked U.S.S. Butterscotch as a joke, but Robin knew that it really was his favorite. 

Now she was watching him nod along to the music and hum off-key, taking occasional sips from his milkshake. “Robin look!,” he yelled pointing off into the trees on one side of the road, “Another deer! Fuck they’re so cute.” She found him endlessly amusing. Even when he was being frustrating and dumb, he could always make her laugh.

“Steve, you’re my best friend.”

“You’re my best friend too,” he said immediately. He didn’t even take his eyes off the road to look at her. But she knew it was true because he smiled the rest of the ride and got out of the car to give her a big hug when he dropped her off at her house.

That had been years ago, and Robin still thought of it often. She hadn’t really ever had a best friend. Steve told her he hadn’t either - not a _real_ best friend. 

“Who knew a little torture by evil Russians could bring people together?,” he said.

A year later, Robin headed off to Brown. She was planning to study theatre, and take some art classes at RISD. Maybe take a film class or two. She and Steve talked a lot about making movies together, and they made a few low budget horror movies with the kids. She wrote the screenplay for each one and Steve directed because he could boss them around in a way that made him seem maternal instead of demanding. They were obscenely bloody movies, often leaving everyone sticky from corn syrup and red food dye. When El was in town she was kind enough to use her powers for special effects. Everyone agreed that the films were vastly improved by that. Sometimes Steve could even talk Jonathan and Nancy to help out with set decoration and wound makeup.

Steve stayed in Hawkins until Robin graduated and then followed her to the East Coast. He downplayed it a lot, but Robin knew how hard he had worked on his second round of applications. She proofread his essays and gave him tips, even offered to put her phone number down and pretend to be a credible reference if any of the schools called. Now he was studying filmmaking at Emerson College in Boston, just an hour’s drive away from Providence.

They saw each other as often as they could. They both had cars and would visit each other on weekends, breaks and other holidays. Even when they were both really busy with a project or finals, they still talked on the phone all the time. Robin sometimes sent Steve letters with funny hand drawn comic strips about professors she had or some scandal that was happening on campus. Steve sent her surprisingly thoughtful care packages. Books he thought she might like ( _The Haunting of Hill House_ by Shirley Jackson, _The Bloody Chamber_ by Angela Carter), her favorite candy, stickers, colored pencils, etc. 

And make no mistake about it, Steve was still a chick magnet in college. Maybe even more so. He as charming as ever, but his personality had softened considerably. He was more contemplative. And he didn’t chase women the way he used to, but that only seemed to increase his desirability.

Robin always liked his girlfriends, and was particularly sad when a longer relationship with a girl named Amber had ended. She was vivacious and fun and seemed to be a good match for Steve’s boundless energy.

Robin still had trouble finding lasting romance. Even in an artsy town like Providence she found it lacking a bounty of out, queer women. For the first two years of college she casually dated, sometimes only hooking up with girls. Once at a party she had made out with a guy from Maine who was in town visiting his sister. She hadn’t been high or even drunk, she had just decided that she wanted to try it once. It was okay. She had no desire to see him again, and no other men ever caught her eye. Finally in her Junior year she started a real relationship. Claire was a dancer with long, dark hair that she often kept in a braid. She was very dedicated to dance, but away from the studio she was super goofy. She loved watching SNL and begged Robin to watch it with her every week. Though she had such a great sense of humor, she was also extremely shy. Steve liked her right away and would kindly sit with her in the corner whenever the three of them were at a party or event together. The two of them bonded over their love of horror movies and Phil Hartman. 

When Robin and Claire broke up, it wasn’t for any dramatic reason. Claire was a year ahead of her at Brown, and was moving to San Francisco to join a professional dance troupe. She told Robin she didn’t want to be in a long distance relationship - even for just a year. They officially broke up the day after Claire’s graduation. Claire’s older sister, Elsa, was helping her move out of her apartment that day and she gracefully let them be alone by saying she was going to get a coffee. But the sad look and hug she gave Robin told her that Elsa knew exactly what was going on.

As soon as Claire and her sister dropped her off at her own apartment, she burst into tears. She felt grateful that her roommate was away that weekend. She got into her bed, fully clothed, and called Steve.

Robin tried to say something when he picked up, but as soon as she heard his voice she cried even harder. He didn’t even ask what happened he just said “I’ll be there in an hour, hold tight” and hung up.

Almost exactly an hour later Steve arrived with food and VHS tapes and a big box of tissues. He kneeled down next to her bed and just held her hand for what felt like an hour. Eventually he coaxed her downstairs and made her drink a glass of water. They sat on her thrift store couch and watched stupid movies and ate pizza until they fell asleep. Steve stayed the whole weekend and slept next to her in her bed. If she woke up in the night and started crying again he would rub her stomach soothingly and tell her to breathe if she started to hyperventilate. He made dinner every night and took her to cafes during the day. Made her walk around the neighborhood or go to a park. He bought her a big stack of Stephen King novels and read them to her until she fell asleep. On Monday morning he got up early, kissed her forehead and said he had to go to work but would be back next weekend. Said he’d call that night when he got home from work. Robin fell back asleep, but when she went down to the kitchen later she found he had left her a cream-filled donut.

She and Claire had only been together for about a year and Robin found that within five months she had more or less moved on. She was busy with her final year at college and her Senior projects. She had written several plays and one was being produced as a main stage department show. The rest would be staged readings or part of a spring semester new play festival of student work. The main stage show was a version of Bluebeard that Robin had written after being inspired by the Angela Carter book Steve had given. It had two timelines and featured a non-linear storytelling device. It was about a woman who felt haunted by the ghost of her husband’s deceased wife and thought she was going crazy. The big reveal is that the former wife is still alive and both women had been deceived. Together they team up to murder their shared husband and take back control of their lives. Steve was the first person to read it and he said it was like “ _The Evil Dead_ meets _Jane Eyre_ .” Robin laughed and said she was surprised he even knew about _Jane Eyre_. Steve gave her a little smirk and said, “You don’t know everything about me.”

By December, Robin fully felt like her old self again. She was proud of what she had accomplished in college and was more than ready to graduate. She thought about Claire sometimes, but she didn’t miss her like she used to. She hooked up with a few girls before winter break, but didn’t feel the need to look for a new relationship. She went home and enjoyed the holidays with her family. She and Steve had a small party with the kids (who weren’t really kids anymore) singing Christmas carols in Mike’s basement, baking cookies, and watching _It’s a Wonderful Life_ on TV. Eventually they got bored and muted the movie, letting Steve and Dustin dub the characters. Lucas laughed so hard he peed his pants. Everyone agreed that Steve’s Jimmy Stewart was spot-on. 

Robin and Nancy slipped out and got high on the porch, drinking cocoa and going through all the town gossip. Surprisingly they had become close after not knowing each other in high school. They had started hanging out when they were both home during school breaks and then became pen pals. Nancy wrote really detailed, poetic letters that read like Jane Austen novels. After a while Steve found them on the porch and stood in the doorway with a glint in his eye. “Care to join us?,” asked Nancy holding a freshly rolled joint out. “I’m good,” Steve said with a chuckle, “Just enjoying this beautiful friendship I helped facilitate.”

Robin snorted. “No offense Steve, but Nancy and I’s friendship is not about you.”

“No no, it’s not about me,” he said, “But it is _because_ of me.”

They all laughed at that. Nancy was crying from laughter and they were all so loud that El came out, took one look at Nancy’s tear-stained face, and asked if someone had died. That made them laugh even harder.

Steve and Robin left Hawkins after New Years and settled back into their respective apartments. Steve had lived in a fraternity for most of college (“It’s a _gentle_ , _artistic_ , fraternity Robin. They barely throw any parties. I think the last one was, like, a chess tournament. I’m not kidding.”), and Robin had eventually found a cozy one-bedroom apartment that she could actually afford. She loved living alone. January for both of them was usually slow as both of their schools resumed at the end of the month. Robin still had work study and Steve had a job at a bookstore that he worked winter and summer breaks, but other than that they weren’t that busy. Robin went down to Boston a lot and they would go to plays or concerts. This year Steve came to visit her more because she wanted to spend time with her other friends and rework some of her plays. 

There was about a week left before classes started up again and Steve drove up one Friday evening to give feedback on her plays and watch horror movies. For three months after she and Claire broke up, Robin couldn’t stomach a horror movie. She couldn’t watch them on TV, and she refused to go with Steve to see one at a theater. But while working on _Beard_ (her Bluebeard/Angela Carter-inspired play), she had started watching old Alfred Hitchcock movies like _Rebecca_ and _Suspicion_ to get into a darker mindset for her writing. Steve was resistant to watching the black and white movies with her, groaning when she brought the VHS tapes to his house. But when he finally gave them a chance, he really loved them. He told her _Shadow of a Doubt_ was his favorite.

Tonight they decided on John Carpenter movies. Robin set everything up (comfy blankets, dim lighting, popcorn and Swedish Fish) while Steve went to pick up their Chinese food order. When he returned and they were unpacking the food (they always ordered too much) on the small kitchen island, Robin looked up and suddenly saw Steve in a way she never had before. He was carefully opening a container of sesame chicken and just humming. He ran his hand through his hair. It was a little shorter now than when they first met, but was still the same amazing Harrington hair. She watched his eyes widen with delight as he pulled a wax paper packet out of the brown takeout bag. “Aha! Look what I got. That’s right. Your favorite. _Egg rolls_. Lots and LOTS of egg rolls. I know you always get mad when I eat too many when you’ve only had, like, one so I got extra and -” He kept talking but it was like everything around Robin had just muted and faded out. He took out one of the egg rolls and started munching on it as he unpacked the rest of the food. He was so full of life. Robin was so happy to have this joyful, beautiful person as her best friend. She wanted to hug him. Her eyes welled up. No. She wanted to _kiss_ him. 

“Robin?”

Steve was staring at her, limply holding an egg roll out to her. He looked mildly concerned.

“Do you not want to watch the movies anymore? We can totally watch something else. I know that Claire-”

She cut him off, “No I want to watch them, I think I’m just really hungry and started spacing out”

“Okay,” he smiled when she took the egg roll.

Later they lay on her couch with the blankets on them and _The Fog_ playing. Steve kept laughing at how bad it was, and making predictions of what was going to happen, but Robin was having trouble focusing. They finished _The Fog_ and watched most of _The Thing_ before she said that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Steve gave her another concerned look. He knew that they would often watch movies until they fell asleep, waking up in the middle of the night gorgy in front of TV static. “Are you feeling okay?,” he sat up and tried to put his hand on her forehead. 

Robin moved away from his hand. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

Robin felt like she had pulled herself together but when she returned from the bathroom and was watching Steve fold blankets and pick up loose popcorn, she knew she was utterly fucked. She picked up a sofa cushion they had thrown out of the way to make more room and hugged it close to her chest.

She took a deep breath. “Steve, I love you.”

Steve was placing a folded blanket back on the couch and turned to smile at her, “I love you too Robin.” Then he bent down to the VHS player to take the tape out.

She sighed. She knew he would misunderstand her. She shook her head and stepped forward. “No Steve. I’m - I’m in love with you. Romantically.”

Steve paused, still crouched near the VHS player. He turned to look at her. 

“Romantically?”

His expression was...incredulous? Maybe even a little disdainful. Like he thought she was making fun of him.

“What are you saying Robin? Are you joking?” He had stood up but was still on the other side of the room.

“I’m not joking. I have feelings for you.”

He put his hands on his hips and turned his head away from her to look at the wall. He was smiling but she knew it was really a grimace.

“What are you thinking?”

He was quiet for a moment. He had turned back to look at her again. “Well, I’m confused. I thought you weren’t interested in guys. Like at all?”

“I’m not.”

His mouth dropped open. “Robin! I’m so confused. And also a little annoyed now? You know I had feelings for you, but I thought we moved past it a long time ago. You’re my best friend, truly. In the whole world. But you’re not making any sense right now,” he turned away from her, looking for his shoes, “Maybe I should just get going. I think you’re in a weird mood for whatever reason. I’ll call you tomorrow. I shouldn’t have let you eat all that MSG and sugar you always -”

“Steve I’m not interested in guys. I’m interested in you. You’re the only guy I’ve ever had feelings for.”

By now Steve was standing in front of her, watching her face with an intensity Robin had never seen from him. She was still trying to explain her feelings to him but the more she talked the more it didn’t make sense, even to her. She talked about the egg roll and his gorgeous hair. About kissing that one guy (his eyebrows raised at that) but still being mainly attracted to girls. They way she had seen Steve tonight. How she felt so connected to him, so _safe_. 

After minutes of pure torture he said, “Robin I understand.”

“Okay,” she said. They stood in silence for what, to Robin, felt like an eternity. Maybe a million eternities. 

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. “Steve? What do you think about that?”

He swore under his breath and ran a hand through his hair. “ _What do I think about that_? Christ Robin, I don’t know.”

“Well, do you still have feelings for me? I understand if you don’t. That might even be really funny.”

He gave her a weak smile. Steve looked more nervous and jittery than Robin had ever seen him. Then he started rubbing his forehead and glancing around. 

He started to say something and seemed to think better of it. He took a deep breath. 

“Robin. I want - can I kiss you? I would like to. Badly.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes. His face was so vulnerable and he looked tired. His eyes were a little wet and that made her tear up.

“Yes, Steve. Please.”

He took the pillow she was holding and let it drop to the ground. Then he took her face in both of his hands and leaned down. He paused with his mouth a breath away from hers.

“Are you sure?,” he whispered, giving her a chance to back out.

Robin put her own hands on his face and pulled him down. The kiss was more passionate than she had expected. She was almost out of breath from it. She could feel the intensity of his feelings for her radiating off of him in a way that she had never felt from another person before. Not even Claire.

They stood there and kissed for a long time. Eventually Robin started walking them backwards. All of Steve’s hesitancy seemed to have left him when they reached her room. He frantically pulled off his shirt and then hauled her back to him with one hand in her hair and the other arm wrapped around her. Robin took off her own shirt and Steve groaned when he saw that she wasn’t wearing a bra. He caressed her belly and reached down to unbutton and unzip her pants. She laughed internally when she realized that she was wearing an old pair he had given her. “Well that’s unfair,” he had said when she came out wearing them, giving a fashion model twirl. “They look far better on you than they ever did on me. Maybe we should swap styles. I could be punk?” Steve was kissing her neck when he saw her smile at the memory. “Hmmm? What’s so funny?” She shook her head, kissing him again.

When they were both naked, he laid her out on the bed and got between her legs. 

He hovered over her, stroking one of her cheeks. “I want to go down on you, is that okay?”

“Yes,” she gasped as he kissed her again.

He was exceptionally good at it. He made her come with his fingers deep inside her while sucking on her clit, and then he did it again. He made her come that way until she begged him to stop.

He looked up at her in a way that was very pleased with himself.

“It was good wasn’t it?”

Robin laughed, “Yes! It was incredible.”

Steve smiled. He rubbed one of her knees.

“Robin, we can stop if you want to.”

She leaned up on her elbows. “Do you want to stop?”

He gestured at his hard-on. “Do I look like I want to stop?”

She smiled. “I want to keep going.” At that, he started rubbing her clit slowly and that made her moan.

He stopped, looking at her hungrily. Then he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Robin, have you ever had sex before?”

Robin looked him in the eye. “Yes Steve, I have had sex before.”

“No I mean - I’m sorry. That was stupid. I meant - have you ever had sex with a man? With a penis?”

“No.”

He leaned his head against one of her bent legs. “And you want to do that with me? Are you sure?”

Robin laid back down and ran one of her hands over his arm that rested on her stomach. 

“I really, really want to. With you.”

He smiled and kissed her thigh, and then her belly button. He was leaning over her again, with a hand on either side of her head.

“I want this to be good for you. But I’m afraid it will hurt and you won’t enjoy it.”

He was looking at her tenderly, but she could hear the anxiety in his voice.

“Steve, I have a vibrating dildo. I can take you.”

His head dropped to her chest. “Fuck Robin,” he moaned, “I’m not gonna lie, hearing you say that made me incredibly hard.” 

They started to kiss again and she could feel herself getting hotter. He wrapped her legs around him and kissed her neck and chest. “You’re so wet,” he said against her neck, sounding like he couldn’t believe it. When he sucked on her nipples Robin gasped and it made him groan against her breast. He held her arms above her head and whispered in her ear about what he was going to do to her as he rocked against her. 

They realized at the same time that Robin wasn’t on the pill and didn’t have any condoms or a diaphragm. Steve pulled his jeans on and ran out to his car saying he might have a box of condoms in the glove compartment.

While he was gone Robin looked across the room at her reflection in the full-length, tarnished antique mirror leaning against the wall. She looked flushed and drunk. Her nipples were hard. She looked beautiful and happy.

Steve was back soon, kneeling above her and rolling on a condom.

They started with him on top. Despite Robin’s earlier assurances, Steve was a little thicker than her toy and the stretch made her moan loudly. It didn’t hurt exactly, but the feeling was different.

Once he was all the way inside her, he kissed her deeply and cupped her face.

“You feel so good,” he panted.

He watched her like that, while he fucked her. Robin thought it would unnerve her but it only turned her on more. Steve was a talker in bed, telling her how hard she was making him, swearing, asking her if she liked having him inside her. She always whimpered yes. Eventually he was fucking her hard and rubbing her clit so relentlessly that it threw her off the edge. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” she moaned to him as she clenched around his cock. He fucked her through it and then pulled out of her to go down on her again. She almost cried at how good it felt.

Just like their easy friendship, it felt surprisingly natural to have sex with Steve. She didn’t question it while it happened, it gave her no anxiety. Only once, when she was on her stomach on the bed and he was behind her kissing her neck and thrusting deep inside her, did she marvel at how they could have ended up here. She even liked when he pulled her hair.

He made her come over and over. He said he liked feeling her come around him. Robin liked feeling him come too. It was most satisfying when she was on top, as he always came really hard that way. She loved watching the look of ecstasy on his face.

She sucked his cock at one point, something she had never wanted to do before. But she liked doing it for him. She liked seeing him watch her with adoration as she took him in her mouth.

They seemed to go on like this for hours. They’d finish, talk or eat a snack, doze a little, and then start again. Eventually they fell asleep wrapped up in her big, puffy comforter.

Robin woke in the early afternoon. She was on her back and turned her head to see Steve still asleep, facing her. He looked like an angel.

Almost as if he could feel her watching him, he stirred. Without opening his eyes he sang softly, “Good morning starshine, the earth says hello.”

Robin smiled. “Our early morning singing song.”

Steve opened his eyes. “Hi, Robin.”

Robin turned fully on her side to mirror him. “Hi Steve.”

He looked her over, taking in her bare upper body and the hickeys on her neck, chest, and stomach.

“Get lucky last night?”

She laughed and covered her face with one hand. “Yes.”

Steve leaned up on one of his elbows so he was gazing down at her, his chin in his hand.

“...Should we talk about this?”

Robin blinked. “Okay.”

He looked away and then back down at her, taking a breath.

“If it wasn’t obvious by now, I love you too. Romantically.”

Her laugh was dry. “After all this time?”

He nodded and Robin held her arms out to him. He put his head on her chest and wrapped an arm around her waist.

“The first few months we were friends I still had a crush on you. But as we got closer it didn’t exactly feel like an unrequited thing. It was almost like I had two of you. Robin my best friend I could tell anything to, and the Robin I wanted to kiss. I was just happy to be in your life.”

Robin closed her eyes. “Did you break up with Amber because of me?”

He looked up at her. “What? Robin no, that didn’t have anything to do with you.”

“But you never got over liking me? Why didn’t you say something? I could’ve given you more space, I -”

“I didn’t want to burden you with my feelings. I thought they would go away. But they would come and go. I just thought ‘Well I’ll feel this way about someone else eventually.’ I didn’t worry about it so much.”

He was leaning over her now and she touched his face. “It didn’t make you sad?”

He turned his head to kiss her palm. “You never make me sad.”

She could feel tears welling up again. She wrapped her arms around his neck. He smiled as he kissed her softly. 

They made out for a little while and then she got up to use the bathroom. When she returned he was sitting on the edge of her bed in his underwear and her _Creature from the Black Lagoon_ t-shirt. It was oversized on her, but fit him perfectly.

She straddled him, sitting on his lap. He smoothed her hair, tucking it behind her ears. “Robin...if last night was a one-time thing, that’s fine. If you think about it and realize you don’t want to be with me, I’ll understand. Our friendship is more important to me.”

Robin hugged him tight, resting her head on his shoulder. He ran his hand across her back and sighed into her hair.

“I want to be with you Steve but I’m scared. I’ve never wanted to be with a guy before. I still don’t. But I want to be with you. And what if it doesn’t work? What if I hurt you? What if it ruins our friendship?”

He looked down into her eyes. “It won’t ruin our friendship. If we try this and it doesn’t work - so what? We tried. I’m determined to not let it get in the way.”

She nodded, but was crying now. Bittersweet tears.

His brow furrowed. “Hey, hey, hey,” he murmured, turning his body to lower them to the bed.

She cried into his chest, while he rubbed her back and arms.

“I don’t want to lose my best friend!,” she sobbed.

“You won’t! But I know what you mean,” he said sadly. “But we both have other friends. I have Dustin and you have all your theatre friends, your RISD friends. Like Charlotte! And whatever happened to that guy we hung out with at the Thanksgiving party? Carl, with the big glasses? He was great. I liked him - hell you have Nancy! You like Nancy!”

Robin wiped her eyes. “I do like Nancy.”

Steve went on, “I don’t think anything has to really change. We can still do all the stuff we normally do. But now I get to see you without a top on.” 

He wiggled his eyebrows and she giggled.

They spent the rest of the day in her apartment, talking and laughing. At night they finished _The Thing_ and started _Halloween_. They had both seen it a million times but it was their favorite.

Usually Robin would shush Steve when he talked back to the screen, but tonight she enjoyed watching him yell at the characters.

“Ah c’mon you get butter on your shirt so you take off your PANTS? There was barely any butter on them. Jesus.”

She smiled up at him, chuckling, “It was made for the male gaze.”

“Yeah I know,” he looked down at her cuddled against him, “Robin?”

“Yes, Steve.”

“I want to be your boyfriend.”

She smiled. “I want to be your girlfriend.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Steve started to rub her collar bone with one of his thumbs. “This is to going to sound VERY dumb but - are you still a lesbian? Would that be weird for you to say you have a boyfriend?”

She thought about it. “I guess I do still think of myself as a lesbian. Mostly. But I’m fine with calling you my boyfriend. We could even say we’re partners?”

He gave her a squeeze with the arm he had wrapped around her shoulders. “Partners? I like that. Sounds like we’re fighting crime. Kicking ass!”

Robin laughed and leaned up to kiss him, but Steve suddenly jerked and jumped up from the couch.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“I gotta call Dustin!”

“Right now?”

“Yes right now!,” he was walking backwards into her room. After a moment he called out, “Where’s the phone?”

“It’s where it always is.”

“And where’s that?”

“In here. In the living room.”

Steve came out rubbing the back of his head. “Ha. Yeah. That was a test. Looks like you’re operating at peak performance!”

He sat back next to her, hauling her yellow push-button telephone onto his lap.

“And you really need to do this right now?”

“Yes I do. No matter where I am, what time it is, what _year_ it is - I promised him I would tell him as soon as I found my Suzie.”

Robin remembered that day in the Starcourt bathroom, after puking up the rest of the truth serum, when Steve had told her about Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie and being in love Nancy Wheeler. When Robin asked him if he was still in love with Nancy, he said no. He said he’d “found someone who’s a little bit better for me.” He was talking about her.

At the time it made her feel insanely guilty, knowing she couldn’t return his feelings. Now the thought of it made her smile.

Steve angled the handset under his chin, motioning with his arms that he wanted her to come snuggle back against him. “Wait until he hears about this - I wish I could see his face. He’s gonna FREAK out!”


	2. Berry Picking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Does it bother you?”
> 
> “What does?,” asked Nancy, casually popping a raspberry in her mouth.
> 
> “Seeing me and Steve together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the love on the first chapter! I have decided to continue this story for a few more chapters - at least 3.

Robin moved to Boston at the end of May.Though Steve had moved out of his fraternity, she still insisted that they maintain their independence by keeping separate apartments. She also knew that she was terribly messier than Steve (“Robin what are all these bowls? Was that a mouse??! God I wish I were dead. Oh Jesus - if I died here no one would even find the body.”) and needed to work on that before they could live together. Now she and Nancy lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Somerville. Nancy had studied journalism at Northwestern, but moved to Boston to begin a low-level staff job at The Globe. She was hoping to work her way up to a position on the Spotlight team. Robin was excited at the possibility of getting closer to Nancy and learning more about her.

They had all graduated at the same time, owing to Steve’s inability to get into college the first go-around. But no one was more surprised than himself when Steve was accepted into the MFA film program at Emerson. He told Robin that he had ended up really loving college and was thinking about teaching film himself, which the MFA would allow him to do. Robin remembered when he had TA’d a few courses at Emerson during undergrad - the professors always praised him for how he was able to bring the best out of the students, guiding their projects in exciting directions. He had also received quite a few anonymous - yet very pornographic - love notes which he tried to throw away but Robin kept in a shoebox for “posterity.”

She was so proud of him - she should have known he would be a great teacher after watching him with Dustin and the rest of the kids over the years.

They had found a wonky little apartment owned by two super nice old Greek sisters who had never married. The unit was actually part of a two-family house with Robin and Nancy on one side and the ladies on the other. Their names were Phoebe and Rhea and they were always inviting the girls over for dinner, bringing them rice pudding, and showing them yellowed photographs of their family. Through context clues and a little town hall record sleuthing, Nancy figured out that the women’s older brother had lived in the other half of the house. But then he had died and his widow remarried and moved away with her two small children. The women saw their niece and nephew about once a month and on holidays, but that was essentially the entirety of their family. Robin assumed that she and Nancy had gotten such a good price on the apartment because the women were lonely. 

For even though the place had seen better days, it was really quite a lot of room for two young people in their 20s. It was two floors with the lower half containing: a large living room with a weird little nook (they would place a table there later on, turning it into a cozy dining room), a medium sized kitchen with a mudroom that led onto an attached back porch, a small yet fairly deep pantry, a good-sized bedroom, and a bathroom that was just a toilet and a sink. Upstairs was the master bedroom, the full bathroom (including a clawfoot tub that doubled as a shower), and a little closet-like room that was too small to be an adult’s bedroom but they thought might have been a baby’s room, a study, or a sewing room. They really couldn’t believe their luck with the house and kept thinking that something would reveal itself as a major flaw. 

The ladies immediately took a strong liking to Steve. Anytime they saw him come over they waylaid him on the porch until Robin was able to rescue him. They made him take saran-wrapped containers filled with dolmades, spanakopita, or tiropita. They told him he was too thin and called him affectionate names that Robin and Nancy didn’t understand. One day Nancy asked a co-worker who had Greek immigrant parents to translate what she could remember. At home she showed Robin a yellow legal pad inscribed with the man’s scratchy handwriting. As expected Rhea and Phoebe called Steve “handsome” and “beautiful”, but they also called him “my baby” and a “newly born sheep.” Robin loved that - she told Steve later that their land-ladies called him a lamb. He was sitting on the edge of her bed taking off his shoes when she said it. “Oh yeah?,” he said slyly, turning to face her. “Maybe they have the wrong idea about me. What do they think I’m doing up here with you?,” he murmured darkly. He crawled over her body, dragging his hands up her legs. Robin’s giggle turned into a shriek as he started to tickle her and bite her neck.

About a week after they moved in, Robin and Nancy were painting the kitchen a nice soft-yellow color when the phone rang. It was Steve, asking if Robin was busy and if it was a good time for him to come over. Robin exchanged worried looks with Nancy when she hung up. Nancy got down off her ladder, wiping her paint-stained hands on her father’s old overalls. “Robin, is everything okay?”

Robin bit her thumb. “Steve’s coming over. He didn’t say why.”

The girls waited restlessly until they heard Steve’s car pull up. They both shot up from their seats and hovered near the door. Steve, already possessing a copy of their apartment keys, banged in and sought Robin. His eyes were wide, his body loose. “I got it.”

“Oh my God!” Robin ran into his arms, jumping up and down.

Nancy watched them, still anxious. “Got what? What’s going on?”

Steve explained to Nancy that he had applied to work as an assistant director on an independent film that would be shooting this summer. He just learned today that he had gotten the job. He would be gone for the whole summer but would get back just in time for the start of his first semester of grad school.

Relief washed over Nancy as Robin ushered her into their group embrace.

Robin was immensely proud and excited for Steve until she realized what it would mean for their relationship.

Before moving to Boston, Robin had gotten a job as an assistant to the Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge. But because the position didn’t officially start until September 1st, Robin and some of her friends from Brown had applied for a grant in order to take _Beard_ (her thesis play) to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. With Robin out of the country and Steve traveling around with the film crew, it would be almost impossible (and expensive!) to call each other and even harder to send each other letters or postcards.

Steve was optimistic - after all it was only really for a few months. He promised to call Robin when he could and made sure to give her a list of the addresses he would be staying at and when.

He couldn’t guarantee when he would be back, but he estimated it would be sometime in September.

Just like in college, Steve sent her wonderful surprise packages. He sent her local candy from the different states his visited, goofy polaroids, and vintage postcards that said things like “It’s Grand in the Canyon!”. Robin sent him tapes she bought from grimy English bands she saw in dive bars. One of her friends took some very artistic nude portraits of her, but she chickened out and didn't send them. However, she _did_ mention them in one of her letters. He called as soon as he read that part, leaving a one-word message on her flat’s answering machine: “Tease.”

It was a beautiful August Saturday, not too hot, and Robin was in her room listening to the radio and folding her laundry. Suddenly she heard the front door slam open and an excited voice yell “Robin?!”

It was Steve. He was back early! She hadn’t expected to see him until the beginning of September.

She jumped up and started for her door, then backtracked to look in her mirror. She was still in her pajamas, which consisted of a faded band t-shirt and comfortable “granny panties.” She smoothed her hair down a bit and then hurried out of her room and down the stairs. Steve was in the living room with his back to her, but when he heard her come in he dropped all of his bags and swept her into his arms. His was kissing her intensely and his hands were everywhere. All over her back, her neck, her ass, her hair - suddenly he pulled away. 

“You cut your hair?”, he said with wonder as he turned her head gently to look at it from different angles. It was a pixie cut.

She smiled. “Phoebe did it.” Phoebe owned a hair salon and still cut hair sometimes - mainly for longtime clients. Robin had been having a drink with her out on the front porch when she told her about showing Nancy _Rosemary’s Baby_ for the first time.

“Oh she couldn’t stand it - I don’t know why she keeps watching horror movies with me. She seems to hate them, but then she comes home and is like ‘Robin let’s watch _Black Sunday_ ’! ”

Phoebe had taken a long drag on her cigarette and said, “You would look good with that hairstyle.”

“Which hairstyle?”

“The Mia Farrow - with your bone structure it would look fantastic. Really bring out those beautiful blue eyes, hm?”

Now she watched Steve continue to run his fingers over her head and neck. “Do you like it?”

He smiled softly at her. “I love it.”

They kissed slowly and then he put his hand up the back of her shirt to feel the smooth skin of her back.

“God, Robin,” he moaned, kissing her neck, “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you too.” She wrapped her arms around him to hold him tighter.

She pulled back to take a look at him as well. His hair was longer and messier and he now wore wire-rimmed glasses. Robin recalled him mentioning in his letters that he was having a hard time seeing far away. She ran a hand over his chest - he felt broader than she remembered and his face sported a few days of stubble.

She took his face in both of her hands. “You don’t look like a boy anymore - you look like a man now.”

He frowned a little, his eyes growing worried. “Is that bad?” 

She traced her thumb over his bottom lip. “No,” she said, fiddling with the ends of his hair. “And the long hair is very sexy.”

He gripped her hips. “Can we go to your room?”

She nodded.

Steve glanced around the living room and craned his head to peer into the kitchen. Then he murmured in her ear, “Is Nancy home?”

She shook her head. “Mike’s visiting and they went on a day trip - I think they won’t be back until late tonight.”

Steve’s grin was wolfish. “Good - I want you to be nice and loud for me.”

She laughed, wrapping her legs around his waist as he picked her up.

In her room he stripped off her t-shirt and bent down to kiss her breasts. Robin moaned his name and started to unbutton his pants. He stopped her hands. “Not yet,” he whispered.” One of his hands smoothed up her back and wrapped loosely around her neck. “Do you trust me? I want to try something.”

“Yes,” she breathed.

He smiled, stepping back from her. “Take off your underwear and get on the bed. Facing the wall.” He was still dressed in his pants and a long-sleeve denim shirt. She watched him pause to roll the cuffs up his forearms. _God_ \- he looked strong.

No sooner had she got on the bed when she felt Steve grab her hips and pull her to the edge. She started to laugh but it turned into a moan when Steve knelt down and started to eat her out from behind.

“Fuck,” she gasped, feeling his tongue circle her clit.

He raked his nails lightly over her ass and lifted his head. “Is this okay?”

“Yes!,” she cried, “Please don’t stop.”

With his mouth on her like that and already being so turned on, she was very close. She panted to him that she was going to come.

His mouth left her as soon as she said it.

She barely had time to make a noise of annoyance before he flipped her over and was laying down beside her. He licked into her mouth, letting one of his hands skim over her chest and stomach.

He kissed her nose. “I want to see your eyes when you come.”

She hummed and pulled his mouth down to hers. He opened her legs wider, draping one of them over his hip. One of his hands went to the back of her neck while the other was stroking her center softly, not giving her the friction she needed.

After several agonizing minutes she wrapped her arms around his neck and whimpered, “Please Steve.”

He smiled against her lips, “What do you need?”

“Please, I need you. Please baby.”

She could feel herself dripping onto the bed as his fingers circled her opening. “Is this where you need me?”

“Yes - please!”

He kissed her deeply as two of his fingers slid inside her. 

“Oh fuck!”, she cried, gripping his arm.

“Yeah? Does that feel good?,” he teased as he curled his fingers inside her to hit just the right spot. “Are you going to come for me?”

She was nodding but the way his fingers were working her had a warmth that spread inside her from her belly to the rest of her body. She arched against him, crying out. He stayed inside her to feel her come around his fingers.

Robin lay back, flushed and sweaty. She looked him right in the eye. “I want you inside me.”

She leaned up to unbutton his shirt, kissing his chest as it came into view.

Steve kicked off his pants and underwear, crawling over her. One of his hands went behind her head as he entered her in one long stroke.

“I thought about this so much,” groaned Steve, settling deep inside her.

Robin smoothed her hands across his chest and stomach, urging him to move. “Me too,” she gasped.

He went slow and deep for a while until she pleaded that she needed more. Then he tilted her hips back, pinning her thighs to the bed with his hands. “Is this okay?”

“Yes,” she moaned, running her hands down his arms.

His thrusts were hard and Robin knew he was getting close. “Touch yourself,” he growled.

Robin did as he asked, coming quickly after that. Steve groaned as she fluttered around him. He came too, thrusting deep inside her.

They stilled, catching their breath. Robin hugged him close, kissing his neck. “That was so good.”

Steve pushed himself up to look at her. “Yeah?”

“You made me come so much!”

“Hmm, I think I didn’t do it enough.”

They had sex one more time before Robin left him in her bed to nap. She crept downstairs and finished the chores Nancy had asked her to do while she and Mike were out. 

After a couple of hours, Robin woke Steve and they took a shower together. They changed into clean pajamas and curled up on the sofa to see what was on TV. They ordered a pizza, which Steve insisted on paying for. They ate and talked, Steve telling her about his disastrous connecting flights and Robin filling him on neighborhood gossip and details about Mike’s visit. Eventually the TV wasn’t holding their attention, so they shut it off to read. Steve was reading a John le Carré paperback that he got at the airport, and Robin was making her way through Jane Austen’s _Northanger Abbey_ (“Steve it’s so good - it’s about this teenage girl who only reads Gothic novels.”). Eventually Steve kept pausing to show her a particularly juicy passage, so she shut her book and let him read to her. 

Nancy and Mike arrived at around midnight, clattering in with Mike’s bag, flowers, other treats they had picked up on their day trip, and a sack of takeout.

Nancy was facing away from them, trying to maneuver a bag inside the door. “Robin did you eat already? We got so much food. I ordered that cheesy thing you like. Mike what did you -,” Nancy had finally turned, seeing Steve on the couch. She dropped the bags.

“Steve! I thought you weren’t back until next week?!”

By now Steve had bounded over and was picking Nancy up, giving her a short twirl. She laughed, hugging him back. He put her down and they smiled at each other. His hands rested on her shoulders and she was cupping his face, exclaiming about the new glasses. They didn’t look like teenagers who had dated anymore, now Robin thought they looked like an adult man tenderly admiring his tiny mother.

Watching them, Robin thought back to a conversation she and Nancy had months earlier. It was their first night alone in their new place. They were all moved in, but had yet to get most of their furniture. They had some pieces from Robin’s old apartment: her small kitchen table, a few end tables and some lamps. Sadly, Robin’s vintage sofa hadn’t made the journey. As soon as she and Steve tried to carry it into the house, two of the legs dropped off. They dropped it on the curb and Robin remembered Steve flopping facedown on it and laughing hysterically in exhaustion.

So Nancy ended up dragging her mattress out to the living room that night and they dressed it in all their blankets and comfiest pillows. Robin crafted them a dinner from items she found at the nearby deli - cured meats, cheese, a slightly stale baguette, and some fruit that was about two days from going off. One of Robin’s lamps cast a cozy glow around them and they ate while Nancy’s record player crooned softly in the background. Robin watched Nancy butter a piece of baguette and carefully place a bit of canned tuna and a single oily, preserved pepper on top. Her fingernails were tastefully manicured and she now wore her hair in a side parted, chin-length bob with no bangs. She was so pretty and elegant, it made Robin’s heart clench a little. 

“Does it bother you?”

“What does?,” asked Nancy, casually popping a raspberry in her mouth.

“Seeing me and Steve together.”

Nancy’s face was angled down as she picked up her food, but her eyes rolled up to look at Robin. She thought for a moment then laughed, breaking into a wide grin.

“It doesn’t bother me at all. You don’t know how ecstatic I am to see him so happy. So content - with direction and passion in his life. So much of that is because of you. You _must_ know that.”

Robin blushed, sipping her wine.

Nancy reached out, placing her hand on Robin’s forearm. “Robin, I love you both so much. Look at what we have. I couldn’t be happier with everything,” she gestured around at their spacious apartment, ending with an exaggerated Lana White move on her Boston Globe sweatshirt.

Robin laughed, throwing a cherry at her.

Now Nancy was approaching her, intending to sit on the sofa. Steve and Mike were hugging and chatting, eventually disappearing into the kitchen - to get beer most likely.

Nancy flopped down next to her, swinging her feet up to rest them delicately on Robin’s lap.

“He looks so much older!,” Nancy stage whispered, leaning her head against one of her hands.

“I know!,” Robin agreed, “I told him he looks like a man now and he looked so distraught.”

“Is he still worried that you’d rather be with a woman?”

Robin gestured for Nancy to lower her voice. “I think a little bit, yeah. We talked more about it at the beginning but then we were really only together for four months before we both left.”

“Well you should definitely -,” Nancy suddenly cut herself off when they heard Mike and Steve returning. Her face stretched into a silent “Ah!” grimace before she scrunched down in her seat, holding a finger to her lips.

“What are you guys talking about?,” chirped Mike, hopping up on the sofa arm next to Nancy.

Nancy leaned her head against his thigh. “Oh, just about how handsome and wonderful Steve is.”

Steve had pulled one of the big comfy chairs closer to the sofa and was leaning forward, cradling a beer. “Oh god, Nancy. Stop!,” he laughed as he pushed his glasses back and rubbed his eyes.

Robin stretched her leg out to gently tap his knee. “You’re still so tired. You should go to bed.”

Steve leaned back in his chair. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” But then he waved his hand in front of his face, yawning loudly. 

Nancy started to extract herself from the sofa. “Alright, I think we all better go to bed. Mike and I have been out all day eating weird foods, Steve was traveling, and Robin graciously did all the chores I asked her to do. A miracle!”

Robin watched her head down the hallway that led to the kitchen. “If all of you are good - maybe I’ll make pancakes tomorrow!,” Nancy called.

Robin and the boys stood up, stretching, gathering plates and nudging the room back in order.

There was a creak and Nancy popped back around the corner. “Robin, can you help me for a second?”

There was a narrow closet next to Nancy’s room where they kept clean sheets, towels, extra pillows and blankets. Robin assumed she needed help getting Mike set up on the couch.

Suddenly Nancy grabbed her arm and yanked her into the bathroom. Robin pulled the chain on the overhead bulb as Nancy shut the door. “Nancy - what’s wrong?”

“I wanted to tell you what I was trying to say earlier. I’m a little worried by what you told me. I think you and Steve need to have a real conversation about what you want out of your relationship.”

Robin leaned against the door. “I know, Nance. It’s just all been a lot - I think I was waiting until our lives settled down.”

“I get that. I’m just saying you should talk about these things sooner rather than later. I know you love each other very much, but you never know what can happen.”

By the time Robin had made her way upstairs, Steve was in bed reading a book. 

“Hey, I thought you would be asleep.”

Steve rolled onto his side, shutting the book. “I wanted to wait for you.”

Robin moved quickly through her nighttime, eager to be back in his arms. Steve pulled her against him as she got into bed, snuggling into the crook of her neck and running his hands over her hips.

“You smell so good.”

Robin laughed, rolling onto her back. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

Steve kissed her and whispered, “Me too.”

Robin woke up alone. 

In the kitchen she found Mike drinking coffee at the table. She saw that Steve had taken her radio and had tuned it to a sports game. He was at the stove, watching bacon and eggs sizzle.

“Nancy got really excited and wanted to make muffins instead of pancakes. She just ran out to get blueberries,” said Mike when he saw Robin notice Nancy’s absence.

“I offered to go, but she said she doubted my berry-picking abilities,” sighed Steve.

Robin walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“You’re so good,” she smiled, watching him patiently flip an egg.

Steve chuckled. “I’m just trying to be helpful.”


End file.
